Paris Barraza, USA TODAY
California’s governor’s race isn’t letting up. Another debate arrived just a day after leading candidates squabbled over health care and assessed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s performance, right in time for the rapidly approaching June 2 primary election.
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 hosted the gubernatorial debate on Wednesday, May 6, which featured Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, and Democrats Xavier Becerra, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer and Antonio Villaraigosa.
Here are key takeaways from the debate, where topics spanned housing, homelessness and more:
Regulations, restrictions and zoning: Dealing with housing in CA
Hilton argued for simplifying regulations that make it pricey to build housing in the state, and to stop “hidden taxes” on building. However, the big change needed is ending an “ideology” that says the only acceptable form of housing is to “shove” apartment buildings into suburban neighborhoods. Hilton said California has stopped building the kind of starter homes and single-family homes that used to be built so well in the state.
To Bianco, you can’t afford a home in the state because builders can’t afford to build due to “excessive regulations.” So, he’ll remove restrictions and regulations causing this, calling out the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, in particular.
But should the state get involved in zoning? Mahan said that if cities don’t do their job, then the state needs to intervene and hold them accountable.
Becerra had a promise to help give Californians the chance to own a home. He’ll expand down payment assistance programs; Villaraigosa was also in support of down payment assistance.
Under Porter’s leadership, Californians would have a 5% down payment on their homes and “not 20” — presumably meaning 20%. While down payments can vary, Redfin said a 20% down payment “is standard, if you can afford it.”
Home insurance rate freezes bring out differing opinions
Becerra repeated his plan to call for a freeze on insurance rates; among his plan in addressing the home insurance crisis in California is making sure that rates are based on risk, and that risk is based on the mitigation efforts to reduce it.
Yet Becerra’s plan to freeze rates is something other candidates took issue with.
“We can’t afford to freeze rates because what will happen is every insurer remaining in the state will leave, and if people cannot get insurance, they will not build more houses,” Porter said. “They will not build green energy projects.”
The solution is to bring back insurers and have them compete to drive down costs, according to Mahan. It’s a sentiment shared by Porter.
“The notion that we would freeze insurance rates — one, the governor can’t do that, two, it’s just going to make it worse,” Villaraigosa said.
It’s worth noting that voters will also be tasked with deciding the next California insurance commissioner.
Several candidates for the position were asked about Becerra’s stance in a clip published on social media and shared by candidate Patrick Wolff. More specifically, they were asked whether they believed the governor has the authority to tell the insurance commissioner to freeze insurance rates, with most candidates saying “no” in response.
It comes as Consumer Watchdog issued a statement from Litigation Director Will Pletcher on the topic of rate increases in response to a recent gubernatorial debate.
“The new Insurance Commissioner — who has the direct power to order a moratorium on rate increases as well as stop unjust cancellations and non-renewals — and the next Governor will need some time to wrestle the insurance industry back under control,” Pletcher said. “A regulatory freeze will help stabilize the insurance market until they do so.”
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